Author: Alan

You know all those iPhone 5 cases we’ve been seeing the past few months? According to MIC Gadgets, the source for their design is an iPhone 5 prototype that was stolen off the factory floor of a Foxconn plant in the Futian district of Shenzhen, China.

The site says the tale of the missing Foxconn iPhone 5 prototype came to them through an iPhone accessories supplier (store seen below) who said a case manufacturer paid around $3,100 for the stolen prototype iPhone (a small fortune for a Chinese factory worker) in order to get a jump on competition.

Store in China where tip was received.

The tear drop-shaped prototype was hidden inside a casing that made it look like an iPhone 4, although because the iPhone 5 is supposedly much wider than the iPhone 4, it’s a bit of a mystery how Apple pulled this off.

Strangely, the prototype had the same A4 chip inside it along with the same amount of memory. The only difference between it and iPhone 4 (exterior differences aside) was that the internal hardware was “slightly modified.”

Apparently, Foxconn got wind of the theft and punished internal management for the loss. A separate source told MIC Gadgets that the person who stole the prototype was paid specifically to do so. To thwart Apple’s tracking the phone, the thief quickly wiped all the phone’s software—his clients were only interested in its external design.

The incident is similar to one from this spring where 3 Chinese men were arrested after stealing and selling info about the yet unreleased iPad 2 to Chinese accessory and case makers. Companies who can sell an iPhone and iPad case at the moment of launch stand to make a lot of money. In 2009, a Foxconn worker committed suicide after being questioned by Foxconn security officials regarding a missing iPhone 3GS prototype.

Of course, when the CAD blueprints for iPhone 5 cases were leaked broadly and passed around the Internet, it likely foiled the case manufacturer’s hopes of gaining an advantage.

MIC made a beautiful video showing off some of cool iPhone 5 cases that have resulted. Check it out below:

Rumors have been creating the anticipation for months now, and now Apple appears set to introduce its next iPhone. The company has officially sent out invitations to select media outlets for an event to be held on Apple’s Cupertino campus on Tuesday, October 4. The invitations come with the tagline, “Let’s talk iPhone,” leaving no doubt what the focus of the event will be.

The invitation (seen above) features four app icons: Calendar displaying the event’s date (Tuesday the 4th), Clock showing 10:00, Maps showing a pin on Apple’s Cupertino campus, and Phone with a 1 red badge.

As always with Apple’s invitations, some are trying to find hidden meaning within the invitation. Does the “1” on the badge signify there will be only 1 iPhone introduced instead of the rumored 2? Does “Let’s talk iPhone” with no mention of iPod, at a time of year when we usually talk iPod, mean that there will no longer be an iPod touch, just an iPhone sans contract? Is the Maps icon meant to signify a big change to the maps feature, maybe even the dropping of Google Maps for Apple’s own service? Does the fact that there are 4 squares mean they are buying FourSquare?

I admit I will be disappointed if a redesigned iPhone isn’t announced, as I was with the iPhone 3GS. But all the incredible changes in iOS 5 may be enough to keep me excited for any new hardware, even if it looks the same.

The mystery of the details of the iPhone 5 is only 9 days away from being resolved, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital, which claims that Apple will hold a media event on its Cupertino campus on October 4 for the announcement of the iPhone 5.

Apple holding the event on its headquarters comes as a surprising choice to some, as Apple historically has announced new iPhones at much larger venues like the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The Apple campus has been used mainly for minor product announcements and events like the Apple Hi-Fi and the public rebuttal to Antennagate, although it was also the site for the introduction of the iPhone SDK, which we’d call a historical event (probably the iPhone’s second most important event after the original iPhone reveal). The location of the announcement leads some to speculate that the iPhone 5 will not be a major product refresh but instead the rumored iPhone 4S that looks much like the previous version.

Kayo external battery on an iPhone 5.

Doubt is rising in the Apple rumor community as to whether a completely redesigned iPhone 5 will actually arrive this year. The doubt mainly comes from a lack of physical evidence—there have been no true iPhone 5 parts leaked, all we’ve seen so far are parts that fit an iPhone 4S concept. With the sheer amount of parts makers involved, surely something, anything, would have leaked by now?

Well, there’s one Chinese company that still thinks a redesigned iPhone 5 is coming. Battery accessory maker Kayo, based in Shenzhen, China, were the iPhone is assembled, just supplied its designs for an external battery for the iPhone 5.

According to Kayo, at least, the rumors we’ve heard about the iPhone 5 are true. The iPhone 5 will have an elongated oval home button, wider edge-to-edge screen, the mute/ringer switch will be located to the other side, and the phone will be wedged-shaped and incredibly thin, thinner than any Samsung phone. (We’re also hearing that Apple chose to relocate the mute/ringer switch to make it more comfortable to use the volume-up button as a camera shutter button—part of the new functionality to be introduced by iOS 5.)

We would caution that we’ve only seen Kayo’s renderings and not one of their actual batteries, which says to us they haven’t fully committed to an iPhone 5 arriving. It’s one thing to pump out a cheap silicone iPhone 5 case, which costs pennies each to produce. It’s quite another to pump out external batteries.

Apple is planning to hold a media event on October 4 to announce the upcoming iPhone 5, according to a source speaking to the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital. The device will then be available in stores just a few weeks later. The announcement is contingent on there being no last-minute delays, as Apple remains flexible with the date of the announcement, says the source.

For much of 2011, the release of the iPhone 5 was rumored to come sometime in the fall of this year, then new rumors narrowed the date down to September. Only last month did the general consensus begin to specify October as the release date for the device.

Much of the delay for this year’s iPhone is believed to be due to Apple’s iCloud feature, an ambitious new service from Apple that will allow iPhone owners, among other things, to wirelessly update and backup their iPhone without using a computer. iCloud was announced along with iOS 5 at Apple’s WWDC event in June. That event also marked the last public appearance of Steve Jobs before his stepping down as Apple’s CEO in August. New CEO Tim Cook is expected to take over Jobs’ role as lead pitchman for the upcoming iPhone 5 event.

Bloomberg is reporting today that Sprint will be offering unlimited data plans for the iPhone 5 when it launches on Sprint’s network in mid October. With the plans, Sprint, currently the third largest wireless network in the US with around 55 million customers, will attempt to lure new business away from rivals AT&T and Verizon, who have ended their unlimited plans.

Sprint already offers unlimited data plans for Android phones on its network. The cheapest plan is priced at $69.99 a month for 450 voice minutes. AT&T’s maximum data plan is 4 GB for $45, which includes tethering, and Verizon’s max plan is 10 GB for $80.

The average iPhone owner uses 492 MB of data a month, according to a recent report by Nielsen released this summer.

Our friends over in China sent over a new batch of iPhone 5 cases images, and unlike previous iPhone 5 cases, these are actually kind of cool. TGBus sent us these photos of 3 new case designs that hint at the iPhone 5’s slick new redesign, indicating the next-gen device will be both wider and longer, perhaps due to a new 4-inch screen.

TGBus also shows a Samsung Android phone with a 4-inch screen (seen below) next to one of the cases as well as another photo contrasting the case with an iPod touch. It’s also interesting to us how much some Samsung phones look like the upcoming iPhone 5, especially the oblong home button. This similarity has previously led some to speculate that the original leaked iPhone 5 case blueprint could actually be for an Android phone modified for the Apple logo and buttons.

A pair of calipers were used to measure extra space between the frame of the iPhone 5 cases and an iPhone 4 placed inside. This seems to indicate the iPhone 5 with be 3/10ths of an inch longer and 4/10ths of an inch wider.

Check out the gallery below for the full collection of 11 images.

DigiTimes is reporting today that Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer who assembles the various components of the iPhone into a finished product, is currently putting together 150,000 iPhone 5’s a day. That’s roughly 4.5 million a month. That likely won’t meet demand, but Apple is probably establishing a starting pace for quality control before a major ramp up. iPhone 5 output is expected to reach 22 million devices for the fourth quarter of the year.

In concert with iPhone 5 production, supply of the iPhone 4 GSM and CDMA models is likely to dwindle in the fourth quarter, say sources speaking to DigiTimes. Shipping times for the iPhone 4 have recently increased to 1-3 days, indicating the start of supply contraction.